


Ruins

by amassingeffect (Furorscribiendi)



Series: Goddamn Trainwreck [6]
Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Depression, Destroy Ending, Mild Language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-18
Updated: 2019-08-18
Packaged: 2020-09-06 12:08:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20291203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Furorscribiendi/pseuds/amassingeffect
Summary: With the Reapers finally destroyed, there is more than one type of ruin left behind in their devastating wake.





	Ruins

No one knew what happened up there. The Reaper War was officially over, had been for the past three months. And because he managed to blow off his leg and get an infection, Zaeed had been out of it for most of that time. With supply chains blown to shit and everything in ruins, it was back to basics for most medical treatment. 

Hell, the doctors were surprised he even managed to survive. The infection had been bad, nearly took him. It had taken a bit more of his leg and they had to amputate just above the knee. That had been fun, turning back the thin covers to see the bandaged stump of his left thigh.

Life had already taken so much from him, what the hell was a leg in the grand scheme of things. 

He’d asked only once about the Normandy. The sudden silence that swept over the room and the shaking of the doctor’s head told him everything he needed to know. MIA, KIA, didn’t matter. It was obvious to see that no one wanted to say a thing and it made him want to shake them. Lying here, bedbound and stewing in uncertainty was the worst sort of shit to put him through. It was taking a particularly dogged sort of determination to remember Javik’s simple request.

Easier to say and much harder to fucking do, goddamnit.

What didn’t make it any better was his hovering doctor, but he could hear a commotion outside the sad excuse for his room door and a familiar voice that made him dredge up enough energy to sit up in his bed.

“He’s still resting. You can—”

“How about you shut your damn pie hole and let him in to see our squad leader,” Jisseya’s aggrieved voice came with a flash of biotics he saw through the sheet masquerading as a door. “All Kaemus is gonna do is talk, and trust me, that’ll be motivation enough.”

“So, if you’ll excuse me…” 

Kaemus’ chipper voice came with the sheet being snapped back. All Zaeed saw was a glimpse of Jisseya’s scarred face locked in a staredown with an equally angry looking doctor who seemed to be wrapped in a stasis field. Fucking lovely. All Kaemus did was act like there wasn’t a near fight brewing outside and settled down on the lump of concrete doubling as a stool. Zaeed watched as he settled down, resting his cane by his good knee.

There was no getting around it, Kaemus’ prosthetic looked… odd. It looked like it was slapped together from parts lying around and bent in strange places. But hey, what the fuck did he know about how turian limbs worked?

“Zaeed, seriously, I know you like me and all, but you just had to go and get your leg blown off too?” Kaemus rested his hands on his thighs, a shit-eating grin plastered to his face. “Between you and me, I think Jisseya is ready to murder your doctor. And trust me, I know she can hold a stasis for a long time. Might give her enough time to skin your doctor for keeping you from us.”

“Piss off.” Zaeed couldn’t be bothered to deal with Kaemus and his talking. Right now, all he wanted was to just… not deal with shit for a bit.

“Seriously, is it true Buksor carried you on her back like a human baby?” Kaemus was enjoying this way too much. He shifted on the concrete, resting his hands on his cane as he peered at Zaeed’s scowling face. “I hope someone got a picture.”

Zaeed closed his eyes, willing himself to not try and strangle Kaemus yet. He didn’t have near enough strength to finish the job and damned if he knew where his gun was. “If you’re gonna run your goddamn trap, tell me something useful.”

“Hm…” a taloned finger tapped against a mandible. “The relays are busted. They all haven’t worked since that red light stopped the Reapers. No one wants to say it, but Commander Shepard is MIA still and so is the Normandy. Chatter is the Commander radioed for an emergency extraction during the beam run. After that…” he shrugged. “They’re still searching for the Commander but it’s more likely they’ll find a body after so long, even if no one really wants to say it out loud.”

For once, Kaemus wasn’t spouting useless shit. Zaeed regarded the chipped concrete ceiling for a moment, not sure of what he should even say. Even more surprising was for once, Kaemus just let the silence be. What the hell could have happened on that run that would make Shepard radio for an extraction? And Shepard had been going right down the gullet where the fighting was the absolute worst.

It was easier to tell himself not to worry instead of actually doing it. The one time he figured he could have someone, someone who got him, understood… Zaeed just closed his eyes. At this point, he just wanted to go back to sleep. He’d see about punching life in its fucking face later.

“Hey Jisseya,” Zaeed called out. “How much longer we got?”

“Few more minutes. Why?”

“If you ever unleash this arsehole on me again when I’m bedbound, I’ll skin your crest.”

Jisseya just gave a derisive snort. “You actually gonna haul your scrawny ass out of that bed to do it then?”

To be fair, she did have a point. He gave an aggrieved sigh. “Just get out of here, both of you.”

“Whatever you say, boss.” Kaemus got to his feet, easily loping from the room and ducking past the sheet. “At least we have something to tell Buksor. She’s been as bad as you, Jisseya.”

Zaeed listened as they walked away and once they were out of earshot, there came the telltale pop of a stasis field disintegrating. His flustered doctor strode into the room and he beat her to the punch.

“You want me out of bed? You want me to call them off?” he could see the argument brewing there. So why not throw some gasoline on it. “You get me Buksor.”

___________________________________________________

It had been a spectacular row with his doctor, but he got Buksor to help him get moving and he kept the rest of his squad mates off his doctor’s back. What did and didn’t help was how tightly they closed rank around him.

Jisseya mainly ran interference with anyone who needed to deal with Zaeed. At the moment, she was his favourite because she told pretty much every one to go fuck off. With his doctor, it was a tentative stand-off. If they got really pushy, her show of biotics usually got them leaving. 

The person his doctor argued with on the regular was, surprisingly, Buksor. Then again anyone with a medical degree would take issue with what Buksor considered “physical therapy”. She sparred with Zaeed, held nothing back. He was constantly getting his ass handed to him as he relearned his balance, how to move and fight. His prosthetic leg was as old school as Kaemus’: jury rigged from what was available and heavy as shit. No fancy cybernetics here, there was too much infrastructure going up and rebuilding happening everywhere and that took resources. 

His doctor had lodged a single complaint: that he was pushing himself too hard too soon, that he needed time to adjust.

Buksor had a simple counter to that: Zaeed couldn’t adjust his crippled ass if he was killed by an enemy because he took it easy. 

What didn’t help was how they saw how his sleep was restless, how they made excuses for him to rest in the day. Or how his appetite was nearly non-existent and it was surprising how often energy bars were shoved at him. Not that he was really eating, even when he knew he should.

Though, Buksor had solved that one night handily enough. He been picking at his MRE and she had growled out, “Just eat the damn thing already.” Hell, he couldn’t even remember what he said that started the argument. But he’d thrown the thing in her face at some point. Buksor’s large hand had caught him in the head full force and judging from how it was ringing, yeah, definitely had a concussion and he’d dizzily gone off to sleep, with Kaemus chattering away in his ear. But when she’d shown up the next morning with breakfast, he took it with a scowl and ate it, no complaints and she’d given a satisfied grunt.

Sure it was probably ungrateful of him. Dextro food supplies had past the critical point and small scale food production had been established on Earth. Quarians were growing their food from seed stock they had and turians were getting by with cloned meat and supplementals from the quarian produce. Fuck, who the hell else would carry seed stock into battle besides bloody quarians? 

But there was a baseline effort he had to plod through that felt like… felt like it was too fucking much sometimes. But he made that goddamn promise and he’d stick by it even if it killed him. 

Strangely enough, for all the talking that made Zaeed want to strangle him, Kaemus seemed to understand on some level. He needled in little ways, gave Zaeed something to fight and push back against.

It honestly helped more than Zaeed cared to think about.

But still, when he was woken up from a nap by Kaemus pressing down a squirming mass of fur into his lap, he _really_ was giving serious thought to shooting the damn turian.

“Do humans eat these? Found it scrounging around.”

When Zaeed looked down, it was the scruffiest looking puppy Zaeed had ever laid eyes on. Though not quite a puppy. Maybe nearly grown? It wasn’t moving so much now in his lap, gaze fixed on Kaemus and ears laid back.

“Yeah, thanks for dropping a pissed off dog in my lap,” Zaeed rolled his eyes because he needed yet another complication. “Get out of here.”

“Want me to take that?” Kaemus pointed a talon at the dog and it growled, ruff raised. “It’s tiny, but feistier than a nathak.”

Then Kaemus growled, the sound low and threatening enough to make the hairs stand up on the back of Zaeed’s neck. The dog sunk low, ears flattened but its own growl shifted into a whine. Jesus fucking Christ, posturing between a turian and fucking dog. 

Zaeed scrubbed at his face before pointedly repeating, “Get. Out.” 

Kaemus let the growl drop before he shrugged and loped from the room, closing the door. Of course, he left the damn dog behind. The dog seemed to relax but eyed Zaeed warily. Fucking Kaemus and his so-called brilliant ideas, eating a dog, really? Lately, he couldn’t tell if the turian was yanking his chain or being dead serious. Zaeed moved his hand slowly, letting it rest a little bit aways from the dog. It crept forward slowly, sniffing at his hand and licking it before deciding that settling down was the best option at the time. Maybe the dog figured he was the safer bet than possibly encountering Kaemus again.

Zaeed should have known something was up when Buksor showed up with enough food for him and the mutt the next day. Where Kaemus had found the dog from, Zaeed had no idea, but the damn thing stuck to his side like glue. The doctors had despaired of clearing the animal out because it kept coming back as soon as it was removed from the room, or made such an unholy racket that the nurses just let it back in. How his days went from being pissed at everything to actually productive, he really wasn’t too sure. Just crept up on him really. There was his therapy with Buksor, helping keep guard on supplies and now he somehow had a dog that needed walking daily, which meant he was roaming through rubble all over London.

“You know,” Kaemus mused one day when they were making their way to the temporary Alliance HQ. “Kinda glad we didn’t eat him.”

“You don’t eat dogs you idiot,” Jisseya rolled her eyes. “Goddess knows you watched enough human movies when you were laid up in bed.”

“I wouldn’t eat this one, still looks too stringy.” Buksor shrugged when Zaeed stared at her. “Are there bigger ones?”

“For the last time, no one is eating Patches!” Zaeed snapped. 

The silence that followed in his wake was something he preferred to not dwell on. After a few seconds, Buksor made a thoughtful sound.

“Eh, it makes sense. The hair? Whatever that stuff is, it’s growing in a whole bunch of different colours.”

Zaeed sighed as they walked up the rubble slope to HQ. The shit-eating grins could disappear from Jisseya and Kaemus’ faces any time now. Major Coates seemed a bit surprised when they showed up. What a ragtag group they must have looked like. With a damned dog. 

“Good to see you’re back up again,” Coates nodded as he gestured to seats in front of his makeshift desk. “We do have a simple mission for your team, if you like.”

“Depends on what it is.”

“Last Cerberus stronghold we ferreted out on Earth. General consensus had been that perhaps you lot would like a crack at it first,” Coates looked hesitant now though, as he examined Zaeed. “If you’re up to the task, we will see everyone properly outfitted.”

Zaeed glanced at Buksor and she just shrugged. “Good way to now if you’ll get yourself killed or not.”

“He made it this far, he’s not gonna croak any time soon.” Jisseya said dryly with a bored expression. “I for one welcome the chance to wipe that shitstain known as Cerberus off the map once and for all.”

“Seconded.” Kaemus’ steely tone did make Zaeed wonder and when he looked back at Buksor, the krogan just shrugged again.

“Your call.”

“What a fucking honour,” Zaeed groaned; sometimes leadership was a right pain in the ass. “All right, we’ll do it. Where this damn place at?”

__________________________________________________________

The shuttle ride was smooth and Zaeed shifted, stretching his new leg out. Turns out for high priority missions, military resource allocation meant that he and Kaemus got shiny new cybernetic prosthetics. He’d been surprised as shit when he’d woken up and found that it was a Miranda Lawson who’d done the double surgeries.

_‘If I could bring back Shepard and save Vakarian’s face and mandible, a new leg is child’s play.’_

Zaeed couldn’t help but snort at the memory. Miranda had been tough as nails and managed to leverage herself into a needed position in the Alliance. There was no getting rid of her that easily unless she wanted to disappear.

But his new leg… hell, it was definitely lighter than the old one and it had taken a quick spar with Buksor to get a bit of a feel for it. It maneuvered well, took his weight and given the springiness of it when landed on proper, Buksor had not been expecting him to come barreling back at her, with his fist catching on her chin.

Watching Kaemus and Buksor tangle had been something too, and he vaguely wondered if his fight with the krogan had looked like that, just ferocity and jarring impacts from hard strikes. The shuttle shuddered a bit, bringing him back to the present and the pilot called back,

“Sorry about that. Water’s a bit choppy from the weather. I’ll keep an eye on the radar for storms.”

The turbulence was momentary as the shuttle continued into the water. Buksor was napping and Jisseya was reviewing something on her omni-tool and Kaemus… the turian looked like the embodiment of a pile of sick after a drunken night. Damn, he had no idea turians could even go that yellow.

"Do you hate me?" Kaemus looked up at Zaeed, mandibles in tight as the shuttle shuddered a bit before the thrusters and dampeners kicked in.

"Not my fault the arseholes decided they needed an underwater base." Zaeed shrugged, before he gave a thin smile. "Put on a lifejacket."

"Like those things can actually float a turian." Kaemus looked like he was about to hurl.

Buksor shifted in her seat with a grunt. "Makes sense that humans float. You're very squishy, watery fat sacs. Why you need more things to float..." she shrugged.

"You're not going to drown Kae," Jisseya rolled her eyes. "Quit with the dramatics and take a scopolamine. Gotta say it feels good to get back to it."

Kaemus gave a miserable sigh as he fished in a pouch for a pill and downed it. But Zaeed made an agreeing sound with Buksor. All the therapy he did with, all the walking and standing around… He wanted to stretch himself further, actually feel the weight of a gun in his hands again, bash some heads in, have the chaos of battle around him. An easy silence settled into place as the shuttle navigated through the pristine Pacific waters. Then,

"If I drown, I'm gonna be the worst spirit you guys have ever heard of."

"Tell you what, I'll strap you to my back," Buksor snorted. "You can guard my rear."

"Pft,” Kaemus aimed for levity and managed to hit wretched. “Like you did to Zaeed?"

"Who said that?" Buksor fixed a gleaming eye on him. "I carried him out in my arms. Like one of those swooning human females in those human sex novels."

Fuck sake, that was even worse. Jisseya looked about ready to piss her pants with laughter, but Kaemus looked unsure now, studying Buksor carefully. There was a reason why no one really played Buksor at any sort of gambling venture.

"We're five minutes out from the launch point," The pilot called from the front. “You may want to finish suiting up now.”

"All right then. You know the drill," Zaeed stood up, steadying himself on the rail overhead. "We go in, clear the base and put an end to these fuckers once and for all."

The determined nod from them all did make Zaeed feel better. Enough stories of Cerberus atrocities had made the rounds during the war. Everyone had skin in the game in putting these bigots out of business. It didn’t take long for the rest of the light armour and helmets to go on, for seals to be checked and airlines secured.

"Coming up to the drop zone now," the pilot said, as they flicked some switches and the rear cabin was bathed in red light. "Sealing compartment."

_'I'm gonna fucking die.'_ Kaemus bemoaned one last time as the cockpit door sealed shut.

_'Everyone heard that?'_ Zaeed rolled his eyes as he got assenting sounds in return. _'Thanks for the comm check, you chickenshit.'_

Heading into the base with a shuttle drop was too noisy, too obvious, not to mention impossible given that the tunnel to it was barely wide enough for a person. Turns out there had been a bigger one, but it was sealed with a rockslide. But this area was also teeming with marine life of the large sort, so four large heat signatures wouldn't even register. The shuttle came to a stop, red lights now flashing as the side door opened slowly. Everyone braced against the water that rushed in, filling the compartment.

At least Buksor knocking him around seemed to do some good. Zaeed managed to keep himself upright, didn't feel his knee threaten to buckle in the slightest. They bobbed as the water gushed in and once it filled the compartment, they pushed off into the dim waters.

The past hundred years had done a number on the area, volcanic activity from a rift making new islands and atolls as if to compensate for the losses from climate change. The new islands were the perfect hiding spot, riddled with nooks and crannies and the sediment discharge stirred up the sand, made the waters murky enough that no one could just blunder in.

Their jetpacks fired up, the VI gliding them through the water and mimicking the speed of dolphins. It was perfect cover now as they slowly wound through. Black, volcanic rocks slowly emerged from the sediment fog, pockmarked with round spots and with a giant crack right down the middle, it really looked like the entrance to an evil lair. Christ, these fuckers knew how to pick a place alright.

Without the VI guiding them in, they would have been dead. Once inside, this rock system was a maze and everything looked exactly the same. The path the VI took them through narrowed them down to a single file chain before it widened back to large area, open air glimmering above them.

A sheer rock face a few hundred meters ahead neatly cut the cave in half. Zaeed motioned for them to dive, and once they hit the rough bottom, they followed it across and then up out the water, activating their cloaks and quickly scaling against the short cliff. They were nearly at the top when he heard the crunch of steps.

"Man, those heat signatures are still here. How the hell did dolphins get in here again?" A woman's aggrieved voice sounds a bit muffled through the helmet earpieces.

"Not the first time it's happened. Pop a few shots into the water, that makes 'em clear out."

Zaeed glanced over at Jisseya and she detached a hand to make a quick up and hooking motion. Yeah, that was pretty much their sole option. So much for sneaking in.

_'Zaeed and I got this, you two bring up the rear.'_ Jisseya whispered over the comms.

_'You know it.'_

Kaemus' voice was shaking, though if it was from rage of fear, Zaeed had no idea. Not that it mattered because when he glanced over at Jisseya, she was holding up three fingers. She waited a beat before making it two, then it was one.

The jetpack fired, sending him hurtling up into the air, black rock whipping past before he saw a confused face below him. A minute press of a gauntlet button sent propelling him forward. He knew his cloak dropped when the person’s eyes snapped up and widened before they turned to try and run. He drew his arm back, the omni-blade extending down and punching forward as he landed. It ploughed right through them, a bloody burst spraying the rock. A glance over showed a corpse sliding off Jisseya's sword.

Buksor and Kaemus were in defensive position, flanking them on either side. Kaemus’ helmet visor had gone clear and the turian had a wild, hard look in his eyes. Oh yeah, with that look and the cruel looking club crackling with electricty, Kaemus was more than ready to cause some maximum damage. Buksor had some vicious spikes along the knuckles of her gauntlets and Zaeed couldn't help but smile.

_‘Let’s have at it, yeah?’_

That was all he said and Kaemus' dark laugh was the only thing heard over their comms. They silently moved into the base, the sentries not having sounded the alarm. What did get the base on high alert was stumbling into a whole squad of troopers. Buksor’s spiked fist connected with the front of a helmet with a crack and blood leaking out when the body hit the floor was like a gory gong.

Fuck yeah, Zaeed really had missed this. Bullets whizzing past, the frenetic pace of battle. How fighting with an amazing squad made it into an almost transcendent experience. Buksor had her fists moving fast as Kaemus danced around her, his electrified club making short work of shields and paralyzing bodies. Jisseya and Zaeed still had more than enough to deal with. Her sword flashed and Zaeed had to admit, there was something to the nano-titanium carbide knife he’d been issued. Sometimes, omni-blades just didn’t have the same heft as a blade in the palm.

A screaming klaxon and flashing red lights made them hurry up, mowing through some surprised troopers to the heart of the base. 

_'That sounds like a countdown and I refuse to be the first damn turian to drown on Earth!'_ Kaemus snarled, the comms crackling with the force of his words.

_'Less talking, more killing!'_ Jisseya made an aggrieved sound as a large squad of troopers showed up in the narrow hall. _'Mop ‘em up!'_

Buksor charged into them, her wild laugh joyous over the comm system, and Zaeed managed to get right beside her. Got the crunch of armour from charging into someone, catching them by surprise, even more so when his knife sank right into the vulnerable neck spot and they crumpled to the ground with a gurgle, bleeding out in their armour too fast for medigel to do shit.

Whatever was in the main control room, troopers seemed willing to die for it. Zaeed didn’t think he’d ever gotten into a scrum like this, where people were just throwing themselves at death like this with a kind of desperation. It was gory bloody business getting to the door and Buksor managed to wedge her shoulder to stop it from sealing shut. She barely managed to shift her hands to it, slowly fighting against the mechanism trying to seal the door. Zaeed could see the steel rods on the side. If that door closed, they were really up shit creek.

_'Keep it open!'_ Jisseya’s brow furrowed in concentration as her hands glowed. The shimmering sheen of a biotic field appeared on the edges of the door. _'Buksor, smash it!'_

There was no questioning, Buksor simply took a step back, the doors and biotic field shaking from the opposing forces. Her hump loomed large as she reared back and her bellowing head smash made the doors crumple inwards with a thunderous boom, as if they were tissue paper. 

A large krogan stomping into a room flanked by three other people would be enough to make anyone pause. That was all the time he and Kaemus needed. Two seconds was all Zaeed needed to grab his knife, aim and throw it hard, catching one of the people at the console in the shoulder and making them drop with a nasty looking bang to their face. The sound of convulsions made him look over to see the other person crackling with electricity from Kaemus’ baton before they dropped like a wet sack. 

But that damn klaxon was still wailing and yeah, that was a countdown Zaeed saw on the screen alright. He strode over quickly, yanking his knife from the person's shoulder before hauling them up by the injured arm and slamming them up against the nearby wall. A quick motion command on the HUD turned on the outer helmet speakers.

“Turn it off.”

They cried out in pain but Zaeed didn’t really give a rats’ arse, he needed them to do one single thing. Not that it helped, all he got was a furious look and a bloody gob of spit on his helmet. He vaguely heard a muttered curse from Jisseya who was at the console, her fingers flying across keys.

“Seriously, why couldn’t we get some Goddess damned cowardly humans.” She muttered.

Numbers rapidly went down and a low groan made Buksor move, picking up the other human by the back of their shirt and lifting them up off the ground. Kaemus moved almost lazily, picking up his baton and letting the crackle of electricity do the talking as he brought it up to the coming to human’s face. He waited until he heard the whimper as the person came to and saw what was right in front of them. The person he had against the wall tensed, a sharp inhale not stopped quick enough. Yeah, just as he thought.

“Is it worth their life?”

The room was practically rank with fear now, mingled with the metallic scent of blood. But the knifed person was just staring at him furiously, jaw set in a stubborn clench. 

“Remember why we—”

Buksor dropped the human and Kaemus cut off their attempted words quick, viciously stabbing his baton against their gut. The person convulsed on the floor, raw screams coming from their throat before they passed out again. Silence suddenly fell as Jisseya managed to disable the countdown, a small, derisive huff audible enough. 

A new kind of fury seemed to enter the person’s eyes as they spat out. “You’re a human, a fucking disgrace to our species, working with the filth of the galaxy.”

The silence changed now, everyone else waiting to see how he dealt with this. He may be a cynical hard-bitten arsehole, but even some things were best dealt with only way. He reached for the knife, jerking it out before he quickly flipped it around and slashed it across their throat. It was easier to just do something than give a long winded speech, he figured as he switched back to their comm line.

_'I don’t got time for this racist bullshit. Jisseya, what did you find?'_

_'It’s some kind of experimentation lab, there’s a prototype. They’ve been trying to get it back up and running but with no success.'_

_'Prototype?'_

_'Yeah, gimme a second. Have to get into the command protocol.'_

Zaeed turned his attention to Kaemus and Buksor. The person on the floor between them was still breathing shallowly. Buksor was curiously watching Jisseya but Kaemus’ gaze was obsessively fixed on the human sprawled on the floor. When he bumped his fist against Kaemus’ shoulder, the turian looked up those slate-green eyes like steel. 

_'How many more can they take?'_

_'One. This thing is a nasty piece of work,'_ he gave it a little swing, a glint coming to his eyes. _'Batarian-made.'_

Shit, that was all Zaeed needed to know. A thunk sound made everyone turn to see a wide wall rising up, revealing a lot of medical equipment and a single large vat. Zaeed’s stomach sank as he approached it, seeing a body trussed up to supports floating in it. The water was clear but the body in the tank… it didn’t look right. There was a grey pallor to the skin and fine dark grey-black lines snaking through the body set him on edge. After a few moments when he got closer, he realized with a chill what it was: dead Reaper tech.

_'By Kalros…'_ Buksor swore, peering into the tank. _'What the hell is that?'_

_'Damned if I know.'_ Zaeed peered into the tank. _'But whatever it is, it looks dead.'_

_'Meta-human,'_ Kaemus snarled, disgust heavy on his voice. _'I saw something like this back on Palaven when I was a kid. They hushed it all up, but I remember them walking through the streets to the temple. Managed to peek under that hood as they passed…'_ he trailed off with a shudder.

_'Shepard stopped a giant Reaper that looked almost like this,'_ Zaeed muttered. _'But this is like they…'_ He trailed off, shaking his head.

_'Tried to make an actual flesh and blood version.'_ Jisseya had an unreadable expression on her face as she came over. _'This is an abomination, plain and simple.'_

_'Sometimes, I think we’re the dumbest fucking species on the block,'_ Zaeed snarled out, turning his attention back to the unconscious person on the ground. He walked over, crouching down to haul them up by the front of their shirt. A few slaps made them come around. "Oi, wakey time."

The person groaned, their body trembling as glassy eyes opened and fixed on Zaeed. It took a few seconds for lucidity to sink in but where the other person had been defiant, there was a wariness here. Zaeed narrowed his eyes. Great, this one was probably the brains and he’d just killed the dumb muscle. 

"You’re on thin fucking ice, so you’ve got one shot," he paused, let the words sink in before he asked, "What was the place for?"

“Nothing less than the next stage of human evolution, the perfect blend between machine and man.”

Kaemus let loose a quiet epithet and Zaeed felt precisely the same. One one hand, he wanted this place to stay buried, make the Pacific ocean Cerberus’ final grave. But these bastards were cagey. This was _supposedly_ the last Cerberus stronghold; who knew if there were anymore lurking out there that had evaded Alliance detection with all the chaos of the Reaper’s demise. If there were more out there, locations would be somewhere on that console. After a few seconds he stood up, hauling the jelly-legged person up and shoving them towards the computer.

“Give her the access passcodes.”

In all his years, Zaeed had learned a thing or two. Any information worth shit was gonna be under lock and key and enough fuck ups accessing it meant it would be automatically wiped. There was only one shot at getting anything, if this one person didn’t cock it up. The person paused, looking past him to his obviously alien teammates before they turned to the console and began typing. Jisseya strode over but after a few seconds, she gave a shout and ripped the person away. 

“Shit, shit, they set a silent countdown!” her fingers were flying again.

Well, that answered Zaeed’s question. There was stubborn defiance in those eyes, but his knife quickly changed that. The defiance went to surprise as if they didn’t think he’d actually do shit. He just watched as they crumpled to the ground, clutching weakly at their throat as blood spilled out with bubbling gurgles. He really hoped this was the last of Cerberus, so he could at least say that he watched the last of this shit bleed out by his own hand. 

Damn if this wasn’t a satisfying feeling. 

“We need to go now!” Jisseya snapped. “Unless you wanna die here, we’ve got three minutes before this place blows to shit.”

“Fuck that.”

Their steps were hurried and rushed, hurdling over the cold corpses on their way back into the main room. They paused long enough to stash away weapons before diving into the water. The VI kicked in, firing up the jetpacks and guiding them out. They were only halfway through when an ominous rumble had Zaeed barking out,

_'Alpha override code 54793-MT, execute full squad max jetpack propulsion!'_

The VI gave an acknowledging chime and a short three second countdown flashed up on the HUD. It was just enough time to press his limbs in tighter before the jetpack cut loose, whipping him through water full throttle. It was hard enough to just hold on and try to not clip the rocky sides. They were all moving insanely fast, bits of rock falling through the water, with strange vibrations strong enough to feel. It felt like a race they were gonna lose as bigger pieces of rocks fell as they moved, VI compensating to avoid most of the bigger ones. The water turned murky now, dark grey sediment in the tunnel blocking visual sight and it was fucking terrifying to know that his life was pretty much in the hands of an impersonal vi. 

He knew he made it when the murk turned from dark grey to a paler sandy colour. The sigh of relief he let loose was heavy and he had to take a moment to steady his own nerves before he called out over the comms,

_'Check in.'_

It was gonna have to be audio check-in because he could barely see his own damn hand, let alone anyone else. 

Jiseeya sounded a bit winded with her, _'Present and accounted for.'_

_'Zaeed!'_ Buksor’s voice was booming with joy. _'You have the best missions!'_

_'Yeah, you would say that,'_ Zaeed couldn’t help but roll his eyes. _'Oi, Kaemus, you ain’t gonna bitch me out?'_ the silence that came was worrying. _'If you’re jerking me around, I can guarantee that you’ll drown, I’ll do it myself.'_ still silence and Zaeed swore. _'VI, ping Kaemus' last triangulated location.'_

The HUD flashed showing a red blinking dot by the mouth of the cave. Shit. They fired up the jetpacks manually until the HUD said they were on top of the location. But it was so murky they couldn’t see shit. But they kept looking, even as Zaeed hit the homing button for the shuttle to come pick them up.

It felt like the longest minute of Zaeed’s life. The shuttle glided up through the water, shadowy bulk showing the pulsing red of the side compartment door opening but they were not getting on that damn thing until—

_'Got him!'_ Buksor crowed and Jisseya’s explosive sigh of relief was loud enough for feedback to screech a bit. _'Let’s go!'_

They swam back to the shuttle and once they were inside the shuttle rose up. A slight pop came on the comm and then the pilot was saying, ‘Please brace yourselves for drainage.’ They swam to the back wall, activating the maglocks for their suits, but Kaemus was worryingly limp. Buksor just wrapped her arms and legs tight around him and even Zaeed wasn’t prepared to see all that water go gushing out. Thank fuck for the maglocks, it half felt like they should have gone rushing back out to the ocean. Once the water drained out though,

_'Shit, his faceplate is cracked.'_

Buksor had deactivated her maglocks and was crouched down beside Kaemus' prone body. Zaeed and Jisseya deactivated theirs, yanking their helmets off as Buksor quickly took off Kaemus’ cracked one and then got to work on the upper part of the armor. Kaemus’s mandibles were slack and splayed and as soon as his undersuit was exposed, Buksor pressed both of her large hands on one side. Zaeed did the same on the other side while Jisseya pulled his mandibles in, sealing her hands against the sides of his face as best she could, sealing her lips to his mouth plates as best she could to force air in. 

It worked to some degree, Zaeed could feel the keel move and as soon as Jisseya stopped breathing in, he and Buksor pushed in as hard as they could. It took nearly a full minute and fucking hell, it was hard work, turians were like lightweight steel inside. Zaeed was starting to think they were gonna have to bury this fucker but then Kaemus gave a shuddering, choking sound and turned on his side to cough up bursts of water.

“Thank the fucking Goddess!” Jisseya’s voice was trembling as she thumped on the back as he coughed up more water. When Kaemus finally flopped back down, breathing hard, she hugged him close.

“All it took… was drowning, huh?” Kaemus joked in a reedy voice. 

“Fuck you, scaring the shit out of me like that,” she bent her head down, pressing their foreheads together, a hand going to stroke his fringe.

Kaemus lifted a shaky hand to clasp at her arm and Zaeed suddenly felt like he should be looking at literally anything else. Like that scuff on Buksor’s armour, when had that gotten there?

“Hey,” Kaemus waited until Zaeed met his gaze. “Worst fucking job ever.”

Zaeed sank back on his haunches with a laugh and shook his head. “If you hate this one, you’ll love the next one I plan to go on.”

Now he had their full attention, curious and patient. Zaeed looked at them, really looked at them. He’d been to hell and back with these sonsofbitches and they were still around. Hell, Kaemus had just nearly drowned, the one thing the turian feared, but here he was awaiting an answer.

“Alliance op?” Buksor ventured after she finally took off her helmet.

“Nah, nuts to that. This one…” he paused, the arid planet and the sky full of burning sun clear as day in his mind. “It’s something only I can do.”

There was a thoughtful silence and then Kaemus asked,

“Any water there?”

“Not a fucking drop.” Zaeed laughed. 

“Thank the damned spirits,” Kaemus sighed. “I’m sold. But you know, when I dry out. Fuck, I half thought you guys would have left my bony keel behind.”

“I didn’t hear any of your lip when I called for check in,” Zaeed shrugged. “And I’ll be damned if your bony keel was gonna haunt my ass.”

Jisseya hugged him tighter. “I wasn’t gonna leave until I found you.”

“Yeah, you’re the most decent turian I know. It’d be too much work to break in a new one.” Buksor shrugged. “Carried you out like a sack of cabbages.”

“You did not.” Kaemus sounded indignant.

“Like a very _wet_ sack of cabbages.” Zaeed snorted. 

“Filthy lies, all of it.” Kaemus huffed in a thin breath. “I’ll take being carried like a human woman from those sex novels.”

“Tell you what, I can do that next time.” Buksor gave a toothy grin.

“There won’t be a next time!” Jisseya snapped. 

“Oh, so you wanna carry him out and then do something about the tension between you both?” Buksor snorted. “Just rut already, would you. Or mind meld, whatever gets you both off.”

Zaeed was more than willing to just sit back, lean against the wall and watch the three of them bicker. Yeah, this was definitely a squad he could trust to a very high degree. Besides, with what he wanted… no what he _needed_ to do as soon as he could, there wasn’t anybody else he could think of to bring with him. 

One person aside, but who knew where the fuck they were or even when they’d be back.

_‘I do not care what it takes. Survive.’_

It felt like he barely managed to do that. More like by the skin of his teeth, but here he was. He survived again. And when Javik finally showed up, Zaeed was gonna be damned sure to have more than enough reasons for him to do the same as well.

**Author's Note:**

> What you thought I forgot about these two? Nope, I'm just a hella slow writer, but slow and steady wins the race!
> 
> Yes, Zaeed was depressed in this fic and handled it in a _very_ Zaeed fashion.__


End file.
